Fairer ranking

w00t · Posted: May 06, 2005 12:27am Post subject:

Also realise that (as I said...) not every IRCd has usermode +S, and therefore not every ircd has that numeric!

For example, on a small bahamut network...

NickServ is service@services.*.net * NickName Services /msg NickServ help
NickServ using services.*.net unServices
nickserv End of /WHOIS list.

Now, if they changed that services server, how are you supposed to know what's what?

And if you mean aliases as in /ns /cs etc - you should know that they aren't pseudoclients. The ircd just redirects those commands to a privmsg to those services.

Look at say, ircdefender. On Unreal it's whois reply might be:
Defender is Defender@*.net * IRC Defender
Defender is a Network Service
defender End of /WHOIS list.

Off Unreal, you probably wouldn't have that middle line - now how do you expect to identify it as a service?

I'm also still waiting for you to name those services.

Dr-Voodo · Eleet Joined: 07 Nov 2003 Posts: 535 Location: IRC

I have to agree with w00t and Roku. You can change whatever you info you would like on those bots, when you create a bot you can put whatever host, identd, realname, nick as you would like, and I do not know much about coding or configuration but I guess it wouldn't be to hard for a coder to actually remove that secound line and then how are you going to detect them as bots?

w00t · Posted: May 06, 2005 6:30am Post subject:

You mean what server they're using?

Well, removing it wouldn't take much. Changing it - even less.

Mary · SearchIRC Admin Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 692

SIRC has to be able to perform a function on ALL networks. If we can count the number of bots and eliminate them when ranking a network, we have to be able to do that for ALL networks or it just wouldn't be fair.

By their nature, some networks, such as warez nets, SIM networks, and networks without channel services, will have large numbers of bots to every human. There are also networks that have more than the usual number of services and statistics bots - some hidden, some not. Usually bots are sprinkled across a network, throughout channels, and even lurk hidden in secret channels or none at all (for example, to catch spammers). Indeed bots have become an expected part of the IRC experience. So our philosophy is, as long as the bots appear to serve a valid purpose, there is no reason for SIRC to discriminate against the network.

On the other hand, we have discovered a handful of networks that run drones, connect to p2p networks, or otherwise falsify statistics or load their network with superfluous connections. Although they appear to be "users" these connections do not interact and serve no purpose on the network except to inflate the user stats and raise ranking. SIRC will not index networks that grossly inflate their numbers through this method.

Roku · Newbie Joined: 18 Apr 2005 Posts: 92

well said, mregit